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The Last Olympic City No One Is Talking About: Milan-Cortina's Transformation Two Months After the Games
The 2026 Winter Olympics ended in February. Two months later, here is what has actually changed in Milan and Cortina — and what was promised but hasn't happened yet.
The 2026 Winter Olympics ended in February. Two months later, here is what has actually changed in Milan and Cortina — and what was promised but hasn't happened yet.
- The 2026 Winter Olympics ended in February.
- The 2026 Winter Olympics, which closed on February 22 in Milan, generated the kind of coverage during the Games that made them appear to be a success on every dimension simultaneously.
- Two months later, the legacy is being assessed against the promises, and the picture is the characteristic mixture of genuine achievement and unfinished business that Olympic legacies almost invariably produce.
The 2026 Winter Olympics ended in February.
The 2026 Winter Olympics, which closed on February 22 in Milan, generated the kind of coverage during the Games that made them appear to be a success on every dimension simultaneously. The Italian Olympic Committee's press operation was extraordinarily effective. The broadcast imagery of Cortina's alpine backdrops and Milan's urban venues was consistently spectacular. The Italian athletic performances, particularly Sofia Goggia's gold medal in alpine skiing, provided the host nation moments of national celebration that temporarily united a politically fractured country.
Two months later, the legacy is being assessed against the promises, and the picture is the characteristic mixture of genuine achievement and unfinished business that Olympic legacies almost invariably produce.
The Athletes' Village in the Santa Giulia district of Milan has been successfully converted to mixed-use residential and commercial development, as promised. The construction timeline was maintained, the design quality is high, and the first residents — a mixture of market-rate and subsidized housing — are moving in on schedule. This is genuinely rare Olympic legacy success and deserves recognition.
The Cortina venues are a more complicated story. The competition venues were excellent and the mountain infrastructure investment has improved accessibility in ways that winter tourism operators describe as genuinely beneficial. But the promised international marketing campaign for Cortina as a premium winter destination — which was the economic justification for a significant portion of the mountain infrastructure investment — has not yet materialized with the resources committed during the Games campaign.
The Palasesto arena in Milan, which hosted indoor speed skating events, is still without a confirmed long-term tenant or operational purpose — a situation that will become politically problematic if it persists past the end of 2026. The Italian Olympic Committee has named several potential anchor tenants without announcing a signed agreement.